luzestrella: when I got to the middle of the book I was shocked. It seens like the climax of all the main conclicts were already there. Why didn't the author cut the novel right there with that happy ending?
Unnusual for a ficcion novel indeep. But for that particular reason, for me it has it's charm.
The other half of the novel goes on describing what happened with the characters after they got what they wanted.… (more)

pingdjip: Like Tolstoy, Faber goes under his characters' skin, ponders their social manoeuvering, and follows the pitfalls and triumphs of their lives. Difference: Faber is funny and sometimes provocative and teasing in a "postmodern" way.

It's questionable whether there's anything to say about Anna Karenina, but I firmly believe book reviews are as much for the reviewer as the review reader, and that everyone has a unique experience with a book, whether they're the first or the (seemingly) last to read it. My experience starts off with an abortive attempt to read this novel a few years ago. I was stymied by my lack of knowledge about Russian society and the time period, and my bemusement at the sections in which characters discuss rational farming methods, rural councils, or regional elections. On my second attempt, I found those parts easier to get through (perhaps because I've done some additional reading of Russian novels, including Turgenev's Fathers and Sons, and a biography of Catherine the Great, which gave some insight into the issues surrounding Russian serfdom). In any event, I realized this time that these parts, which had seemed interminable the first time through, are usually not more than a few pages long, with a couple of exceptions, and they didn't detract from the story much.

I enjoyed all the characters, in that I thought they were all well-drawn and interesting. My major complaint was the last 50 pages, when Anna's story has wrapped up and the only thing left is a far too preachy and lecturing section with Levin. If it weren't for that, I'd probably rate this a 5-star read.

Recommended for: fans of period costume dramas, people who like morals with their stories, anyone who can appreciate a novel that takes its time to develop storylines.

Quote: "Before ... a freethinker was a man who had been brought up on ideas of religion, law and morality and came to be a freethinker through inner struggle and hard work; but now you get a new type of born freethinkers who grow up without ever having even heard that there used to be laws of morality or religion, that there used to be authorities. They grow up in ideas of negation of everything, or in other words, savages." ( )

’Tis the season to slow down the hectic pace, relax a little, and enjoy some of our favorite things. For that very reason, I decided to indulge myself and re-read one of my treasured Russian classics - "Anna Karenina".

In Karenina Tolstoy presents an array of characters from the later half of 19th Century Russia who provide plenty of scenarios that illustrate various customs, controversies, social attitudes, and religious beliefs… those we find in both good and bad behavior. And apropos to Santa’s list, Tolstoy, being of high moral and ethical standards, was not about to let the naughty Anna K. be rewarded for her inappropriate behavior.

Poor, poor Anna… beautiful, sexy, intelligent, kind, and caring. Lovely Anna. Her biggest crime against humanity was falling in love with Vronsky - a wildly attractive playboy - giving in to her passion and deserting her family. That was unforgivable in Tolstoy’s eyes, even though Anna was trapped in an arranged marriage with a man old enough to be her father whom she found to be boring and repulsive.

During this era in Russia there was clearly a double standard for women. The opening scene of the book involves Anna’s married brother Stepan who - caught having an affair with the French maid and trying to justify it as unavoidable says, “there are two women. One (the wife) insists only on her rights, and those rights are your love, which you can’t give her; and the other (the mistress) sacrifices everything for you and asks for nothing. What are you to do? How are you to act? There is a fearful tragedy in it.” A tragedy indeed.

Juxtaposed with Anna is sweet innocent good-hearted Kitty who also falls in love with Vronsky but is spared the creative wrath of Tolstoy. She finds a more appropriate love and is justly rewarded. And Stepan’s polar opposite it Konstantin Levin - the social conscience of the novel - mirroring Tolstoy’s own beliefs. He’s a highly respected country gentleman who works his own farmland alongside the laborers and enjoys nothing more than intellectual debates with his many friends and acquaintances. Aside from the role of heroically saving Kitty, he is Tolstoy’s outlet for expressing political, religious and philosophical views... touching on issues like government waste and corruption, the starving peasantry, education, industrial modernization, and Russia’s role in foreign affairs.

Set in the heart of Russia towards the conclusion of the Tsarist autocracy, the story is rich in history. The traveling back and forth between Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the lush countryside offer the reader a backdrop of graphic descriptions, memorable scenes of birth and death, love trysts and domestic quarrels, social gatherings and political meetings, hunting expeditions, horse races, the opera, and vacations… everything that made up the typical life style of upper class Russian citizens of the time.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky declared the book "flawless as a work of art." His opinion was shared by Vladimir Nabokov, who especially admired "the flawless magic of Tolstoy's style," and by William Faulkner, who described the novel as "the best ever written. ( )

Each time I reread Anna Karenina, picking my way past the attics and cellars and rusting machinery of Tolstoy's obsessions and prejudices, a new layer of his craft emerges, to the point where, for all my admiration of Joyce, Beckett and Kelman, I begin to question whether the novel form isn't too artisanal a medium for the surface experimentation of the modernist project ever to transcend the flexing of space and time that apparently conventional language can achieve in the hands of a master.

Every minute of Alexei Alexandrovich's life was occupied and scheduled. And in order to have time to do what he had to do each day, he held to the strictest punctuality. 'Without haste and without rest' was his motto. [p109 (2000)]

Every man, knowing to the smallest detail all the complexity of the conditions surrounding him, involuntarily assumes that the complexity of these conditions and the difficulty of comprehending them are only his personal, accidental peculiarity, and never thinks that others are surrounded by the same complexity as he is. [p302 (2000)]

Vronsky meanwhile, despite the full realization of what he had desired for so long, was not fully happy. He soon felt that the realization of his desire had given him only a grain of the mountain of happiness he had expected. It showed him the the eternal error people make in imagining that happiness is the realization of desires. [...] He soon felt arise in his soul a desire for desires, an anguish. [p465 (2000)]

He [Levin] was happy, but, having entered upon family life, he saw at every step that it was not what he had imagined. [p479 (2000)]

There are no conditions to which a person cannot grow accustomed, especially if he sees that everyone around him lives in the same way. [p706 (2000)]

Last words

I'll go on not understanding with my reason why I pray, and go on praying--but from now on my life, my whole life, no matter what happens to me, every second of it, is not only not meaningless as it was before, but it has the incontestable meaning of the goodness I have the power to put into it! (J. Carmichael, 1960)

I shall continue to pray without being able to explain to myself why, but my inward life has conquered its liberty. It will no longer be at the mercy of circumstances ; and my whole life, every moment of my life, will be, not meaningless as before, but full of deep meaning, which I shall have the power to impress on every action. (N. H. Dole, 1886)

This is the work for the complete Anna Karenina. Please do not combine with any of the works representing the individual volumes (see combination rules regarding part/whole issues for details), or with abridged versions. Thank you.

The original Russian title was “Анна Каренина”.

Please keep the Norton Critical Edition books un-combined with the rest of them - it is significantly different with thorough explanatory annotations, essays by other authors, and reviews by other authors. Thank you.

Some people say Anna Karenina is the single greatest novel ever written, which makes about as much sense to me as trying to determine the world's greatest color. But there is no doubt that Anna Karenina, generally considered Tolstoy's best book, is definitely one ripping great read. Anna, miserable in her loveless marriage, does the barely thinkable and succumbs to her desires for the dashing Vronsky. I don't want to give away the ending, but I will say that 19th-century Russia doesn't take well to that sort of thing.

Anna Karenina tells of the doomed love affair between the sensuous and rebellious Anna and the dashing officer, Count Vronsky. Tragedy unfolds as Anna rejects her passionless marriage and must endure the hypocrisies of society. Set against a vast and richly textured canvas of nineteenth-century Russia, the novel's seven major characters create a dynamic imbalance, playing out the contrasts of city and country life and all the variations on love and family happiness. While previous versions have softened the robust, and sometimes shocking, quality of Tolstoy's writing, Pevear and Volokhonsky have produced a translation true to his powerful voice. This award-winning team's authoritative edition also includes an illuminating introduction and explanatory notes. Beautiful, vigorous, and eminently readable, this Anna Karenina will be the definitive text for generations to come.… (more)